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Eeek! Spielberg in 3-D without specs

STEVEN SPIELBERG, the most influential visionary in Hollywood, is involved in patenting what film-makers been dreaming of for decades — 3-D movies that can be viewed without special glasses.

Spielberg, who pioneered the summer blockbuster with Jaws and the era of computerised special effects in Jurassic Park, now believes the technology for such 3-D films has finally arrived.

In an interview with a Hollywood trade magazine he has let slip that he is involved in patenting a system which thrusts the viewer inside the film, “inside the experience which will surround you top, bottom, on all sides”.

If the technology wins acceptance, it will revolutionise cinemas, forcing them to tear out their traditional screens and replace them with giant plasma screens specially adapted to project Spielberg’s 3-D images.

It could also revitalise the film industry which is facing declining audiences and fiercer competition from rival entertainment media such as advanced video